For over 100 years, the National Park Service has maintained and protected some of America’s greatest treasures. Since its founding in 1916, the service has enjoyed broad support from the public as well as elected officials from both parties. Recently, however, the Trump administration has turned on the service for what it alleges are attempts to undermine the President, but its move to silence NPS may have inadvertently made park employees into early leaders in the resistance to the new President. Was NPS attempting to provoke Trump with its social media, or was it simply following a course set long before? And is the current President’s animosity toward NPS an entirely new development, or have we seen similar moments in the past? In this episode of The Road to Now we speak with former National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis to find out.

Jon Jarvis

Jonathan B. Jarvis spent nearly four decades as an employee of the National Park Service and served as NPS’ 18th Director from October 2, 2009 until his retirement on January 3, 2017.